Hall and Jason Van Allen, an assistant professor and clinical program co-director in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences, will examine how the physical activity of preadolescent children who have a dog
compares to the activity of those who do not, how much the dog's and child's physical
activities mesh with each other, and how much a child's attachment to the dog determines
the amount of physical activity they share.

Therapy dogs and autism

Past research has shown that animal-assisted interventions, or therapy using dogs,
can increase social behavior in children with ASD. With one in 59 children diagnosed
with ASD, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), understanding why this
happens is crucial to improving their development through childhood and into adulthood.

Wes Dotson

Children with ASD struggle with social and conversational skills, which can lead to
difficulties in forming and maintaining social relationships, potential depression,
poor school performance and struggling to land and maintain employment. While therapy
dogs used in a classroom setting have helped children with ASD display more social
behavior, the mechanics behind that improvement have not been discovered.

The grant, which could potentially top $392,000 depending on renewals and budget increases,
will fund a project that hopes to identify the mechanisms involved in the social-enhancing
effect of dogs on children with ASD by using therapy dogs in an established group
social skills instruction program. Researchers also will design experiments to observe
comparisons between children and measure physiological and behavioral outcomes.

“We are very excited that this important research is sponsored as the outcomes will
lead to significant enhancements in the current understanding of animal-assisted interventions
for children with ASD,” Protopopova said. “Our team combines two different scientific
disciplines – animal science and applied behavior analysis. This interdisciplinary
approach is particularly suited to understanding how and why dogs improve social behavior
in children with autism. As social impairments are hallmarks of autism, this research
will directly address a fundamental need.”

For the experiment, Protopopova and Dotson will bring 72 children with ASD into group
social skills instruction classes taught by six licensed therapists. Each child will
go through a 10-week class where one of three things will happen – a therapy dog will
be involved for the first five weeks of the class or the last five weeks of the class,
or the class will not involve a therapy dog at all. Therapists will teach these courses
repeatedly across the three cycles of the program, with children rotating through
each condition so each child has experienced each type of class.

During the classes, researchers will measure social behavior, stress behavior, heart
rate, electrical conductivity of the skin and salivary cortisol concentrations of
children and therapists and compare the results across all conditions. How a child's
social behavior toward both the dog and his or her peers, as well as the changes in
the quality of the therapists' instruction, both with dogs and without dogs, will
be assessed and compared as well.

Protopopova and Dotson believe the project will show the integration of therapy dogs
results in reduced stress and improved social behavior, repeated exposure to the dogs
will increase both the amount of time desired to spend with the dog and the dog's
social-enhancing effects, and that therapists will experience less stress and lead
to more social behavior and higher quality instruction during sessions that include
dogs.

“The Burkhart Center is dedicated to conducting research that both improves the lives
of individuals on the autism spectrum and also contributes through research to the
collective knowledge about what interventions work and why they work for the children
on the spectrum we serve,” Dotson said. “Difficulty and anxiety around social interaction
are a defining characteristic of ASD, and there is an urgent need to identify and
refine interventions to address that challenge.

“This grant is an exciting collaboration that will help us better understand the role
therapy dogs play in the social responses and interactions of children with ASD in
social situations with peers and adults. The results will have implications for how
therapy dogs can be used to facilitate inclusion and relationship formation for children
on the spectrum.”

Children, dogs and play

Hall said research by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show approximately 70
percent of children fail to meet the national recommendations for daily physical activity.
Statistics also have shown that almost 32 percent of children age 2-19 are classified
as either overweight or obese.

Conversely, 51 percent of children have a dog in the home, according to a 2006 Gallup
poll, and 90 percent of those children report spending at least 30 minutes per day
playing with the dog. Hall said that suggests pets may play an important role in the
amount of time children engage in physical activity.

Yet not much is really known about the correlation between children who own pets and
their health habits. This research grant, which will total just over $70,000 per year
for two years, will allow Hall and Van Allen to develop a model of the contribution
of pet dogs to physical activity of a child in a way that can develop efforts to prevent
childhood obesity by using objective measures of physical activity of both the child
and the dog.

“This grant will help us develop a new measure of children's physical activity with
their pet dogs using objective accelerometers,” Hall said. “This will help us evaluate
whether pet dogs encourage a healthier, physically active lifestyle for children and
whether the bond between a child and dog is related to their synchronous physical
activity.”

Their theory is that children with a dog will engage in more types of physical activity
than those without a dog, and that a pet owner's activity will be directly related
to the dog's activity and attachment to the dog.

“Our long-term goal with this study is for it to help us design better interventions
to increase physical activity in children,” Van Allen said. “Our study may help us
determine whether there are certain types of activities that children do with their
dogs that result in more vigorous physical activity that increases their heart rate
and is more beneficial for their health, or determine whether there are certain dog
characteristics that are important for mutual activity.

“Then, we can use that information to design interventions for physical activity that
might include a tailored recommendation for individuals that specifically involves
their pet dog, which is rarely done in physical activity interventions currently available
for children.”

Those interested in participating in the research by Hall and Van Allen can email
EnergyLabTTU@gmail.com or call (806) 834-7703.

A new era of excellence is dawning as Texas Tech University achieves the Tier One designation. As of 2016, Texas Tech is listed among the nation's top doctoral universities in the Carnegie Classification
of Institutions of Higher Education. Of the 115 universities listed in the Highest Research Activity category, Texas Tech
is one of 81 public institutions in the top tier.

Research and enrollment numbers are at record levels, which cement Texas Tech's commitment
to attracting and retaining quality students. The university strives to foster an
environment that celebrates student accomplishment above all else. Texas Tech is large
enough to provide the best in facilities and academics, but small enough to focus
on each student individually.

Quality students need a top-notch faculty. Texas Tech is home to a diverse, highly
revered pool of educators who excel in teaching, research and service.

The department includes an undergraduate opportunity in psychology, doctoral programs
in clinical and counseling psychology, and masters and doctoral programs in social
psychology, cognitive/applied cognitive psychology and human factors.

Providing services and support to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
and their families across West Texas and the surrounding area

Offering cutting-edge training to teachers, families and other professionals to provide
effective and evidence-based services and support to individuals with ASD

Conducting significant, sponsored interdisciplinary research to better understand
and overcome the lifelong causes and effects of ASD in ways that improve functionality
and quality of life for people with ASD and their families